
The small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
in Nigeria can liberate the country from her current economic quagmire
but lack the required investment and technology skills to achieve the
feat, Head, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO)
Investment and Technology Promotion Office, Bahrain, Dr. Hashim Hussein
has said.
He said, for the economy to rebound, the
federal and state governments, entrepreneurs and stakeholders, must
play critical roles in ensuring enterprise development and requisite
skills acquisition.
Hussein, who also heads the Enterprise
Development and Investment Promotion, Bahrain, an initiative of the
UNIDO ITPO, noted that no developed and developing economy could grow
without vibrant SMEs, pointing out that if Nigeria was serious about
development, it must begin to groom young entrepreneurs to develop the
right skills that would secure the future of the economy.
“A lot of Nigerian small businesses can
liberate the country from the claws of the current economic recession
but are ignorant of certain investment and technology skills to achieve
such feat. We won’t stop at the workshop, we are building business
counseling structures to ensure small businesses are adequately
mentored,” he said.
Hussein called on the federal government
and stakeholders to invest massively in infrastructural and
technological development in order to take Nigeria out of recession.
He however, noted that the challenge of
the Nigerian business environment was not availability of finance but
the access to funding by businesses.
In realisation of the lack of adequate
enterprise development and investment skills in Nigeria, the UNIDO ITPO
empowered entrepreneurs and government agencies by training them in the
relevant areas at its first Enterprise Development and Investment
Promotion workshop, which was concluded in Lagos on Friday.
The workshop, which was the first in Africa, was designed to develop capacity and foster enterprise and investment promotion through the development of first-rate business incubation management and counselling systems.
The workshop, which was the first in Africa, was designed to develop capacity and foster enterprise and investment promotion through the development of first-rate business incubation management and counselling systems.
The Managing Director, MYO foods, Mr.
Leye Lawal, called on the government to make funds available to MSMEs,
adding that the country must pay attention to the production chain, from
raw materials to finished goods, as a way out of the nation’s current
economic challenges.
He stressed the need to strengthen
Nigeria’s institution, adding that strong institutions and policy
stability would, in turn, strengthen the economy.
“There is the need for a strong
political will to end poverty. All around the world, politics is all
about how jobs can be created because it is through jobs that people can
better their lives,” he said.
Another facilitator, Mr. Afif Barhonmi,
said, with the right regulatory, incentive framework, and the right
frame of mind of entrepreneurs, the Nigerian economy could take a step
forward in merging the goals of entrepreneurship development, youth
empowerment/engagement, continuous economic diversification, industrial
upgrading and technological innovation, to make the nation a more
competitive brand in the continent and the world at large.
Participants agreed that developing the
business growth cycle would require assistance schemes and policies,
which would contribute to the transformation of the Nigerian economy and
its integration.
The Director, Research and Innovation,
UNILAG, Prof. Wellington Oyibo, described the workshop as timely, adding
that it was the much-needed tool that could deliver the Nigerian
economy from recession.
According to him, if both government and
stakeholders do not join hands now to manage the entrepreneurs to
excel, then the country would have destroyed the engine room of the
economy.
He said, “Looking at the different
models introduced/unveiled at the workshop, we have been able to craft
what will work for us as a country.
“The workshop cuts across training the
trainers; it helps us to begin to synthesise in our different spaces. We
will use the robust discussion to calibrate across different fields
because participants are from different fields.”
by Chika Amanze-Nwachuku/Thisdaylive
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